MAD MUMMY IN PRINT Pt. 2

There were twelve issues in the Mad Mummy series, which I spent a little over two years working on. They were published digitally and you can find them on sale at iVerse. (https://digital.comicsplusapp.com/product_lines.php?publisher_id=171) At one point they were also available on Comixology, but I’ve pulled them off the latter for unrelated reasons. Currently I am planning on a very limited print run of the series, which will be broken up into a series of three graphic novels. 

This is not a commercial venture, as I have long since learned the folly of trying to sell books as an independent publisher. For selfish reasons, rather than rushing to computer every time I want to look at one of the issues, I want to be able to view and hold the finished product in my hand and stick it on a shelf in my library. So my initial motivation is to print up a limited number for my own use. I also need a limited number of issues to be able to hand out to publishers and for business reasons. From time to time I also get requests from fans wanting to know if there is a print edition of the books, so I’m also offering to any of you who are interested.

Here's a preview of the first volume of Mad Mummy and the first four issue it contains:

Mad Mummy 01- Resurrection

Cursed to spend eternity roaming the world , Aten Ra, the Mad Mummy is just trying to find a little peace and quite in the suburbs of LA, but 3350 years later the reincarnations of his two old girlfriends are still making his life miserable.

Mad Mummy 02 - She Who Walks in Beauty

Cursed to wander the world for eternity, high priest Aten Ra is now try to make the best of it enjoyed the sunshine and living in a quiet section of LA. Then the reincarnation of Nefertiti, the woman who destroyed his life, shows up. Some guys just can't catch a break.

A relaxing day at Malibu Beach takes a twisted turn when Adam discovers the reincarnation of his former lover and betrayer Queen Nefertiti is one of the cuties playing volleyball on the sand. Adam recalls his former life in a flashback sequence, and ponders whether his future in LA will ever be peaceful again.

Mad Mummy 03 - Pawns in the Game

When a cabal of military, business and political men attempt to evict the Harperlys and the Mad Mummy, Adam Ray, from his current LA residence he goes on the offensive. 

This wild conspiracy results in Adam Ray’s landlady Agnes Harperly and her kids Jeb and Jean in danger of losing their home and livelihood. When Adam confronts the reincarnation of his estranged wife Ankesenamun it is no surprise when he discover that HE is actually the target of this cabal. The army, the city, and the corporation are about to find out just how annoyed a mad mummy can get.It's not nice to mess with a Mad Mummy! 28 pages in full color.

MM04- War of the Wizards

Learning how to exist as a living corpse with rotting flesh is one of the first things Aten Ra must deal with when released from the tomb where he has been imprisoned for a century. So he turns to the feared necromancer, Ragmar, and is soon dragged into a battle with the wizard’s rival, the beautiful and wicked Kshayla. A mad-eyed wizard, a slinky sorceress, a sword battle with savage apes…and one immortal mummy just trying to keep things together.

Action and magic galore in this flashback into Adam Ray’s past.

Because both the costs of printing and shipping are outrageously expensive, even offering this product at slightly above cost doesn’t always make it affordable to readers. Each of the three 92 page volumes will run $15, plus an additional $7 postage/handling.(Postage for  orders outside the U.S. will have to be calculated differently.) I thought about lowering the shipping cost by sending the material Media Mail instead of priority, but tracking/insurance keep this from being a realistic option. However, you are only stuck with the shipping cost once; if you order more than one of the volumes the shipping stays the same. 

What you are getting for that price is a one of kind book, because I certainly don’t have any plans to print and sell this commercially. Also, you will receive a piece of signed artwork from series from one of the thumb nailed pages or a series of panels from one of the pencil roughs. While I won’t guarantee you can pick whatever page you desire, I will try and give you options. And when the original art goes on sale, if you have purchased one of the volumes you will always get a 15% discount on anything you might be interested in. 

So if any of you are interested in having any of the Mad Mummy Exclusive Trade Paperback editions, send me an email and reserve your copy today. I am planning on having the books ready to ship to any who are interested by the end of May, 2017.

This should give you an idea of contents of the first volume. A similar preview for volumes two and three will be posted soon.

All in all lots of thrills, chills, and laughs. So if you are enjoying the series on Vozcomix or through Comics Plus, here’s your chance to have your own hard copy. The order goes in late in April, so don’t delay if you have any interest.  Contact me:VOZART@GTE.NET 

MAD MUMMY IN PRINT PT. 1

My favorite horror film of all time is The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff. And it was a movie that I didn’t see until I was in my mid twenties. The movie was made at a time when the world was fascinated with the newly discovered tomb of Tutankhamun and makes use of the art and treasure that had been brought to light. (King Tut was the son of Akhenaten, the pharaoh who will cause Aten Ra all his problems.)

(Seti I who Sax Rohmer described as his model for Dr. Fu manchu.)

Karloff is superb in both his fully wrapped Mummy makeup, and as the living corpse Ardeth Bey. The sets and the cinematography are magnificent. Some of my most vivid childhood experiences were visiting the Egyptian room at the Detroit Historical Museum and this movie brought them all back for me. While King King, Dracula and Frankenstein were the seminal moments of film fantasy for a lot of my contemporaries, for me it was always the Mummy. So it was only natural that I would eventually do a comic book about a mummy. 

My first effort was a shorter piece called Mummy’s Boy, written by my Lori Lovecraft co-writer Pete Ventrella, which eventually was published as a Voodoo Mansion story. That still didn’t satisfy my creative lust for the character. As I thought more about the character, I understood that whatever I did, I wanted it to have to same whimsical approach as Will Eisner’s Spirit. And like that series, the stories wouldn’t always focus on the mummy as the main character. The two cartoonists who’s work really impacted me emotionally were always Joe Kubert and Wally’s Wood, so I pulled out of lot of their earlier work from the l950s when I began to design and draw the character.  And while it didn’t happen immediately, I knew that Sax Rohmer and Dr. Fu Manchu were going to play a big part in the stories.

Because of the sheer amount of time involved in writing, drawing and producing a comic, I originally planned on finding someone to write the stories, and to draw the stories in my simply storyboard style. I failed on both counts on that approach as I did wind up writing all the stories, and somehow there never seemed to be any shortcuts I could take with the art. This really was my labor of love, so commerce never entered into the creative process. 

Every morning my habit is to take an hour long walk up into the foothills behind my house, and this is where I did a lot of the writing and development of the characters and the story. When things would eventually gel, I’d sit down and write out a plot for the issue, and then thumbnail the entire story. After I had gathered the necessary reference I would then rough out the pages in pencil, and then trace those off onto the boards, which I would then ink. (I usually did a line drawing using a Vision rollerball pen or something similar, and then would lay in black and texture with India ink and a brush. Not having the hand of a surgeon, I tried to rely more on design and value rather than line.) The last stage was then to scan the pages in and letter and color them. Thank god I had my assistant Leyanna around to help with those chores; she was invaluable.  

There were twelve issues in the series, which I spent a little over two years working on. They were published digitally and you can find them on sale at iVerse. (https://digital.comicsplusapp.com/product_lines.php?publisher_id=171) At one point they were also available on Comixology, but I’ve pulled them off the latter for unrelated reasons. Currently I am planning on a very limited print run of the series, which will be broken up into a series of three graphic novels. 

This is not a commercial venture, as I have long since learned the folly of trying to sell books as an independent publisher. For selfish reasons, rather than rushing to computer every time I want to look at one of the issues, I want to be able to view and hold the finished product in my hand and stick it on a shelf in my library. So my initial motivation is to print up a limited number for my own use. I also need a limited number of issues to be able to hand out to publishers and for business reasons. From time to time I also get requests from fans wanting to know if there is a print edition of the books, so I’m also offering to any of you who are interested.

Because both the costs of printing and shipping are outrageously expensive, even offering this product at slightly above cost doesn’t always make it affordable to readers. Each of the three 92 page volumes will run $15, plus an additional $7 postage/handling.(Postage for  orders outside the U.S. will have to be calculated differently.) I thought about lowering the shipping cost by sending the material Media Mail instead of priority, but tracking/insurance keep this from being a realistic option. However, you are only stuck with the shipping cost once; if you order more than one of the volumes the shipping stays the same. 

What you are getting for that price is a one of kind book, because I certainly don’t have any plans to print and sell this commercially. Also, you will receive a piece of signed artwork from series from one of the thumb nailed pages or a series of panels from one of the pencil roughs. While I won’t guarantee you can pick whatever page you desire, I will try and give you options. And when the original art goes on sale, if you have purchased one of the volumes you will always get a 15% discount on anything you might be interested in. 

So if any of you are interested in having any of the Mad Mummy Exclusive Trade Paperback editions, send me an email and reserve your copy today. I am planning on having the books ready to ship to any who are interested by the end of May, 2017.

Volume One: Issues #1-4

Resurrection introduces several of the main characters and establishes the relationship between Aten Ra, the defrocked high priest who is doomed to wander the earth for eternity and the reincarnation of his estranged wife, Ankhesenamun.  And of course there is a cat,the scraggy Mr. Ard...or Bast if you want to call him by his formal name. She Who Walks in Beauty which introduces another woman from Aten Ra's past, Nefertiti, and we learn more of the basis of this love triangle. Issue three continues with Atan Ra (now known as Adam Ray) settling into his new residence in the northern suburbs of LA with his landlady Agnes Harperly and her two kids Jeb and Jean. But things are never simple in life, especially an endless life, and the Mad Mummy goes into full battle mode to solve his current problem. In War of theWizards we go back into Aten’s Ra’s past after he is rudely awakened by grave robbers and tell the story about when he meets his first instructor in his study of the occult and the mystic arts. It’s not a long relationship and it’s filled with manipulation and betrayal, but it is a beginning for him in his new life. 

Volume Two Issue #5-8

Issue five picks up his story several hundred years later when he is at the height of his mystic powers. And our narrator, the cat Mr. Ard, gets a break from his duties, as this tale is told to us by an English officer who is surprisingly similar to George McDonald Fraser’s Sir Harry Flashman. The location is China shortly after the TaiPing Rebellion. And of course we get at first look at Ming Yue/Ankesenamun’s father: a young Chinese doctor who will go on to become the world’s greatest terrorist of fiction in the early twentieth century.  In issue six, the back story of Aten Ra (now known as Adam Ray) continues in 1928 in Egypt when he once again meets the Chinese doctor, who is now extremely ancient, and his daughter Fah L Suee who is the reincarnation of Aten's estranged lost love, Ankhesenamun. The story explains Aten Ra's part in helping create the elixir vitae that restores Fu Manchu's life force. In issue seven, this triangle continues in the late 30's, and eventually reaches it's conclusion when the Chinese doctor decides to toss his daughter in the furnace for her disobedience and Aten Ra has to rush to the rescue. In the last story, Aten Ra takes Ming Yue through has past lives so that she understands her centuries old connection with him. Yeah..that ends well…and then we reconnect with in current time with the doctor has finally retired to the beaches of Malibu. 

Volume Three Issue #9-12

The aforementioned Mummy’s Boy story opens the book, followed by The Avatar of Bast, where a couple of space aliens help Mr. Ard learn more about his past.The third tale, Rumsheleisha’s Paw, features a twisted game of organ poker with Aten Ra playing against a  demon for the life of a child. And in Left Turn at Vine Adam has to escort an old friend to the land of the dead. 

All in all lots of thrills, chills, and laughs. So if you are enjoying the series on Vozcomix or through Comics Plus, here’s your chance to have your own hard copy. The order goes in late in April, so don’t delay if you have any interest.  Contact me:VOZART@GTE.NET

THE DIFFERENT PATH: MIKE KUCHARKSKI

Growing up in Detroit, there was no shortage of those of us who ended up working in comics; it was a great help that we all fostered and encouraged each other and had lots of support when we travelled to the Big Apple to try and break into the business. There was Rich Buckler, Terry Austin, Al Milgrom, Jim Starlin, Keith Pollard and Arvel Jones to name just of few of the group. One of the extremely talented artists who started out with us but took a slightly different path was Mike Kucharski. 

His work impresses me because he has certainly gone beyond the confines of comic book art and developed as an illustrator. When I first met Mike his work was as strong as polished as any of the other Detroiters mentioned above. Maybe it was his art school background (few of us actually had that experience) where one of his teachers was the amazing talent Harry Borgman (Vozwords 10/12/13 ). Besides getting a great background in the fundamentals of drawing and design,  Mike learned one of the basic lessons young artists should have. When I worked with Chaykin, most of the apprentices would tell us they wanted to be comic book artists. We would correct them and explain that they should work toward being a strong artist who has comic book clients. Never limit yourself to a single field in art because if things are slow there or dry up completely, you’re going to have some rough times. 

One of the reasons Mike chose not to pursue a life in comic was he felt he didn't draw fast enough to earn a living. To get the quality of work he wanted he need reference (photos or live models) and that process was a much slower one. With the help of a mutual friend , Byron Preiss, Mike got an interview with Gick Giordano at DC in 1970l In 1991 Byron had Mike do an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Besides a Dinosaur, What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up."

He has certainly hasn’t lacked for work as an artist. Over his career he has drawn storyboards for the auto industry, painted covers for VHS and DVD releases, provided illustrations for role playing games, and done a good bit of art for the Detroit museums. Asked about what difficulties he encountered in the working place, he mentioned the lack of logic at times when working for clients: when doing comps the art director would ask him to do three, but do one badly so that it would immediately be rejected by the client who them only had to flip a mental coin. I had heard the same advice often, only to watch clients go gaga over the “bad” drawing. 

Mike still lives in Detroit and is the father of twin sons. While I started out working as a teacher. Mike’s career in teaching came later in life between 2005-2015, although he did do some work in Adult classes while in college and also some substitute teaching the the 1990's. While I loved teaching, I learned that art was a whole lot more fun. And like Mike, I’ve learned that there is more to the world of storytelling and illustration than just drawing comics. 

Below a few autobiographical words from Mr. Kucharksi:

 Born in Detroit, as a kid I spent nine months out of the year drawing, and the summer months running through Michigan’s northern woods; I grew up in Hazel Park where I discovered King Arthur in a two room public library, and The Batman, The Flash and Doctor Strange on a local corner drugstore rotary comic book stand. I won a regional drawing contest when I was 11 years ago, sold my first piece of fanish artwork at the 1969 Detroit Triple Fan Fair, and discovered I didn’t draw fast enough to make a living drawing comic books when I was 18. I began illustrating table top roleplaying game books and sf/fantasy magazines a decade later; a few years after that went into advertising as both a graphic designer and as an illustrator, where I worked on everything from movie posters and video box covers to TV commercial storyboards, and campaigns for birdfeed, FTD, Motorola and Volkswagon . However, I got tired of creating artwork to help sell stuff to people that they didn’t really need, and so by an odd twist of fate, I ended up in the museum industry first working as a Graphic designer and later as an Exhibit Designer. This freed me up to pursue other artistic endeavors: wildlife painting (several have won national competitions and one has become part of the permanent collection of the Springfield Art Museum), fine art printmaking (most of which via paper lithography), and Pre-Raphaelite imagery which I continue to do.